Wind energy is one of the most readily available forms of natural energy, which include solar, hydro, geothermal energy, and is therefore often used to generate electricity. The density of wind energy, in terms of watts per square meter, is one of the highest among other forms of natural energy.
Existing systems for utilizing wind energy to generate electricity have certain disadvantages. For example, since wind velocity generally increases with altitude and a large wind velocity is critical to optimize wind-based electricity generation, tall towers must be constructed to elevate a wind turbine to a high operational altitude in order to maximize the potential to generate electricity from the wind. However, tall towers are expensive to build and once built, are subject to intense vibrations during operation. Furthermore, land for building the towers to support such wind turbines is limited in view of numerous, known factors, including acquisition costs, environmental impact, zoning issues.
Although offshore winds, i.e., winds over bodies of water, are stronger than winds over land, the construction of support structures for wind turbines over a body of water is expensive, although there are significantly fewer limitations on the space for building support structures over such bodies of water. The most notable limitation is that the construction of support structures for wind turbines is limited to certain depths of the bodies of water.
In view of the problems with installing wind-based electricity generating systems over land or bodies of water, flying windmills have been developed. Generally, such flying windmills do not require an extensive support structure connected to land or otherwise anchored over a body of water. One such flying windmill is the well-known Magenn system, which is lighter than air, and utilizes the Magnus effect. A drawback of this prior art system is that its power generation is very limited and it is not very efficient.
Another flying windmill currently under development is a flying electric generator, by Sky Wind Power Company. This system is heavier than the air and attempts to utilize the wind in the upper level of the atmosphere. Among its drawbacks are that it is expensive to construct, includes complex mechanical parts and is not very practical.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a wind-based, electricity-generating system which overcomes the drawbacks of the systems mentioned above.